HIGH TIMES has reported on reggae music since 1976. Although both have been through many changes over the years, the magazine and the music still share a common root. However, while working on this issue’s reggae section, I ran across news that the War on Drugs has had disturbing effects on reggae music.
The July ’91 issue of HIGH TIMES (Hemp 100) encourages an extremely inappropriate use of Levi Strauss & Co.’s toll-free 800 number [(800)USA-LEVI]. Over the past few months, advocates of the “hemp movement” have repeatedly contacted various employees to propose manufacturing jeans from hemp fabric.
Bo Gritz is a real-life Rambo—one of the most highly-decorated Green Berets to serve in Vietnam, a man featured in General William Westmoreland’s memoirs as the ultimate American warrior. From 1964 to ’69, Gritz commanded a CIA-funded mercenary army in Southeast Asia.
Since its inception in 1985, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America has saturated the nation’s media with ads aimed at turning public opinion against all forms of drug use. This nonprofit consortium of ad firms and media organizations, originally launched by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, now amasses close to $1 million each day in donated airtime and print space.
It has long been rumored that Anheuser-Busch—makers of Budweiser, Busch, Michelob, King Cobra and other brews, as well as Eagle brand snacks—has donated money to the Campaign to Abolish Marijuana Production (CAMP), an organization devoted to halting domestic outdoor marijuana cultivation.
HOUSE ARREST: KY DRUG CZAR’S RENTAL BUSTED FOR POT
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Jeff Walter
Sharon Lennon’s arrest on marijuanacultivation charges made national news for only one reason: Gary Faulkner. Faulkner, Kentucky’s “drug czar,” owns the house in Frankfort where police arrested Lennon and a companion on June 18 and seized five six-foot pot plants growing under lights in a utility closet.
DEA officials said opium poppies can continue to grow at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home near Charlottesville, VA. The three-foot-tall species, Papaver somniferum, was planted at the estate in the early 19th century. “Jefferson grew poppies as ornamental flowers just as he grew hemp to make rope,” said Peggy Newcomb, Monticello's assistant director for grounds and gardens.
Ohio NORML is one of the organization's strongest state chapters. John Hartman coordinates the Northcoast area for NORML and focalizes Freedom Fighter and Hemp Tour events. The last weekend of June. Hartman and his hearty crew organized the second Freedom Festival at the Spring Lake campground in Bristolville, 20 miles north of Youngstown.
In the world of drugs, it will be discovered that marijuana smokers actually get high from the glue in rolling papers. An inventor will come up with the neutron bong—a waterpipe that wipes out the smoker but leaves his stash intact. There will be a day-care scandal involving young children who get high by sniffing their melted Crayolas.
A train speeds out of control. It crashes in New York’s subterranean wilderness, spewing bodies onto grimy, trash-strewn tracks. How could it happen? Just minutes after midnight, on August 27, the Lexington Avenue Express hurtled like a speeding bullet through the southbound tunnel.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) is in the process of registering every firearm in America and filing the information in a central computer. This project is known as Operation Forward Trace. On February 26, 1991, former firearms dealer Kirby Ferris was harassed and intimidated into surrendering his files, under threat of losing his firearms license.
THE POLITICS OF HEROIN CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
WARM YOUR HEART
THE CONCERT FOR BANGLA DESH
WHICH DREAMED IT?
RADICAL RAGS Fashions of the Sixties
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Alfred W. McCoy (Lawrence Hill Books) For over 15 years, I combed used-book shops looking for a copy of Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, originally published by Harper & Row in 1972. People described it as an in-depth analysis of the truth behind US policy during the Vietnam War, and the CIA’s attempt to halt the book’s publication gave the claim some validity.
The Yanomami are the largest remaining unacculturated tribe in the Americas. For thousands of years, they have lived in scattered villages deep within the rainforests at the headwaters of the Orinoco River. Until recently, little was known about them; the ruggedness of the terrain and region’s remoteness have allowed them to develop in almost complete isolation from the outside world.
Black Uhuru means freedom, and whosoever think inna dat direction of freedom is Black Uhuru,” says the group’s organizing force, Ducky Simpson. Most listeners associate the trio with its Island Records days, when Black Uhuru was backed by Sly and Robbie, the famous “Riddim Twins,” and fronted by lead vocalist Michael Rose, who flashed his locks, screwed his face and turned songs of “one love” into accusations.
Winston Rodney remains one of the last great classic reggae musicians. Rejecting the word "political"—or any other term—to describe his music, Burning Spear sees himself as a dedicated man with a sacred mission to Jah and, ultimately, reggae.
From the beginning of the Grateful Dead's career, a strong bond has existed between hippies and Rastas. There are many shared aspects between Deadhead and reggae culture—a natural, often bohemian lifestyle; long hair; diet; way of dress; an appreciation of herbs and other organ ic, spiritually enlightening and healing substances; and a belief that we are all part of an extended family (summarized by the Rastafarian creed: One Love, One God, One Aim, One Destiny).
Six summers ago I found myself on the West Coast for the first Time New Yorker marooned on a Southern California beach and surrounded by milling schools of surfer girls and boys—tanned, golden-haired, smiling strangers out of a beach-blanket flick.
Pato Banton’s compelling signature tune,"My Opinion," is one of the all-time great can't-get-it-out-ofyour-head melodies as well as a streamlined vehicle designed to accommodate any number of Banton’s philosophical nuggets. "My name is Pato Banton and this is my opinion."
When Rita Marley released her third Shanachie album, We Must Carry On, earlier this year, it had been seven years since her last one, Harambe. During her recording hiatus, the Queen of Reggae’s hands were full, raising and guiding the careers of her children—Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers.
If you remember Jimmy Cliff dive-bombing around the ’70s cult film The Harder They Come, you’ve got some idea of what Culture is about: a people’s oppression and their defiance, worshipping Jah, resisting injustice and maybe shootin’ up the place just for laughs.
Reggae dub, a rich minimalist music form, came into being through the need to economize and the mad experiments of a few electronics wizards with ears. King Tubby is generally credited as the first to transform two-track recordings on his primitive remixer, dubbing out the instrumentals and letting the singer run a few bars on his own.
Robert Belfiore, 30, studied art at Catholic University in Washington DC. For the past seven years, he has lived in New York’s Lower East Side. He works in a variety of mediums, including pencil, watercolors and oil on canvas. Known as a composer and musician, and for fronting such bands as Optic Nerve and Medicine Hat, Belfiore has recently gained local attention for his psychedelic pop murals and portraits.
Amsterdam Delight Wichita, KS I use rockwool, and I water by hand. I suspect that due to evaporation, nutrient levels gradually build up in the blocks. What should I do about it? Doug Northern California To flush out any fertilizer buildup, it is recommended that the blocks be overwatered so that one-third of the water drains off with each watering.
Three hundred carefully-chosen seeds began germinating on Sunday, September 1, 1990. The waning moon wasn’t in its proper phase, but we began our project anyway. The time was right: Labor Day weekend gave us enough time off from work to set everything up.
owhere on earth these days is herbally-enhanced consciousness more proudly displayed than California’s Humboldt County, which annually hosts the Reggae on the River Festival along the banks of the Eel River. Following the 1966 Death of Hippie march through the Haight-Ashbury, many of the original counterculture figures migrated to California’s northernmost forest land, seeking a locale less prone to hassles and media rape.
People often call the NORML office to ask us how they can help change marijuana laws. Typically, we will tell them to join a reform organization, preferably NORML, and offer to send them brochures, publications, reports and other informational material for reproduction and distribution.
What’s the deal? Is there a lack of pot anywhere besides LA? It’s so dry I’ve started smoking a pack of cigarettes a day (really unhealthy, I know). Even in a fascist state like LA, it’s never been this bad. Hope it gets better soon. Maybe some good people in another state where pot is more plentiful can help.
This year, the HIGH TIMES crew plus two lucky Freedom Fighters travel across the Atlantic to sample the best weed Amsterdam’s coffeeshops have to offer. A practical guide to this marijuana mecca. Pot-smuggler extraordinare Howard Marks was wanted by drugenforcement agents both in the US and abroad for years before he was finally caught.
We’ve finally found a good use for bombs. Introducing the four-foot Atomic Bong, made from an old US Navy test bomb. It features four hoses and the smoothest draw ever! While others are dropping bombs, we’re smoking ’em! Peace! Harry Bongmaster” Cretin Princeton, NJ I bought this old “wine cooler” at a flea market, cleaned it out real well and dropped a stem into it.
Happy sisters! Holidays, Santa RA my would brothers love and to bring you a large bag of ganja to help you celebrate. It has been a rough year for the herb connoisseur. All over the country Jah’s herb has been busted down to a few slim pickins’ here and there.
There is nothing more satisfying for me than to cook a huge meal for people I consider my family, and reggae music has long been an important part of my lifestyle. So it was only natural that I welded my love of reggae music with my passion for cooking.
The groups listed below all have a common goal: hemp legalization. Many of them are on the front lines of the War on Drugs, doing all they can to put an end to police state policies.If you are fortunate enough to live in a country or state where there is an activist group, we urge you to support them.
When I first started collecting records down in Florida, digging through piles of old 45s, I’d often stumble upon a stash of intriguing discs from Jamaica—weird singles on cheesylooking labels (often just type on white paper) like Coxsone, Studio One, Upstetter and Musik City.